their hands to their ears, but still the dreadful voices of the apparitions flooded their senses, drowning out all other thoughts. 'The curse is broken!' the spirits wailed, f Purple magic sizzled around the apparitions, shredding the dark substance that formed them. The i cowls of their robes ripped away. The mortals gaped i. in horror. The spirits did indeed have faces. Yet they [were not the shriveled, cadaverous faces of death. They were the faces of children- pale and perfect, like porcelain dolls. In that moment Wort realized the horrible truth. He had known only part of the history of the bell before. Long ago, when ordered by the wicked king to do the impossible-to forge a bell of bronze and silver-the vengeful smith had used the I blood of the king's three sons to make the two metals bind. Wort had always assumed that the three princes had been grown men at the time. Now he | knew that was not so. The king's sons had been children. Yet the ancient malevolence that shone in the I glowing eyes of the spirits was like none that had i ever glimmered in the gaze of a mortal child.
The dark cyclone whirled impossibly fast, casting off violet sparks in a shimmering fountain. Suddenly it began to contract, as if it were a murky whirlpool draining into some distant, unknown space. 'Father, we come to you!'
With a clap of thunder, the dark funnel collapsed in on itself. The purple radiance vanished. The spirits ь were no more.
High in the dark tower of war, the bell forged of bronze and silver hung silently at the end of a thick iron chain. Suddenly it twitched. It was still for a brief moment. Abruptly it twitched again, more violently this time. Then, with a sound like lightning, the bell cracked. A dark fluid began to ooze from the jagged crevice. It quickened into a torrent running thickly down the side of the bell. Blood.
The groan of metal echoed on the dusky air. With a loud snap! a link broke in the heavy iron chain that supported the bell. The instrument lurched precariously, tilting to one side. Slowly, the link gave away. Like a stone cast into a dark pool, the bell plunged into the pit below.
'I don't need the bell to kill you, Wort,' Caidin snarled. Violence shone in his eyes. His lips pulled back from his teeth in a rictus grin. For a moment, the baron looked more animal than man. He advanced on Wort, clutching the knife.
Wort scrambled backward. He looked wildly about for anything he might use as a weapon to defend himself. There was nothing. Frantically, he tried to gain his feet, but his numb legs would not support his weight. He fell back to the hard floor. Caidin loomed over him.
'You have not made this easy, my brother,' Caidin hissed. Insane rage twisted his features. Now, the baron was anything but handsome. 'But I enjoy challenges.'
Caidin raised the knife. Wort lifted an arm futilely to ward off the blow. Mika's scream pierced the air.
'Die, Wort.' The baron spat out the words.
The knife never descended. With a resounding crash, the stone ceiling high above gave way under some terrible, unseen force, bursting apart and crashing downward in a spray of jagged rubble and shards of broken rock. Through the breach plunged an object-dull, gleaming, ponderous. The bell.
There was only a split second to react. Wort heaved his body to one side, rolling out of the bell's path. Caidin jerked his head up, his eyes wide. Defiant laughter ripped itself from his chest.
'But I am to be-'
The baron's final word was lost in a deafening clang! as the bell crashed down upon him.
Wort covered his head with his hands, cringing as a cascade of falling stone pelted him. Gradually the rain of rubble dwindled. Like fading thunder, the final tolling of the bell rumbled into silence. Slowly, Wort shook off his shroud of rock dust and pebbles and staggered to his feet. He looked up to see Mika staring at him. The falling dust had left her paler yet, making her wide violet eyes seem almost impossibly luminous.
'Are you… are you hurt?' Wort managed to gasp.
Numbly, she shook her head. The same could not be said for Caidin. The lower half of his body lay crushed beneath the heavy bell. His hands were clenched into claws, and his green eyes bulged upward. Agony had twisted his face into a gruesome death mask. Wort slowly knelt beside the dead baron. With trembling fingers, he reached out and shut the staring eyes forever. He gazed at his hand, amazed at his own actions.
'You were wrong, my brother,' he whispered. 'See? You are gone, and yet I remain. Perhaps we were not bound together after all, you and I, save that both of us were monsters.'
A shadow fell over him.
'He was the monster, Wort. Not you.'
He looked up to see Mika. Her gown was a barely recognizable mass of tatters, her smooth skin was marked by red weals and dark bruises, and her face was smudged with dirt and tears. She was utterly beautiful. No matter what happened to her, no matter what she did, Mika would always be as beautiful as an angel. It was her nature. Just as it was his own nature to be… what he was.
'You're wrong, Mika,' he replied hoarsely. Oddly, he felt a sort of peace. He knew what he was now, and in the full knowledge and acceptance of that truth there was a curious reassurance.
She started to protest, but he held up a hand, silencing her. Something had caught his eye. Next to the baron, amid the dull-gray rubble, was a stone unlike the others. It was so small that he might not have noticed it, save that it was darkly mottled and perfectly smooth. He could have sworn that he detected a shimmering aura' of green light about it. He reached out and picked up the stone. It felt heavy and warm in his grip.
'What is this?' he wondered aloud.
'It must be the enchanted stone,' Mika breathed.
He looked at her speculatively. 'Enchanted? How so?'
Mika's gaze drifted to the hideous face of the baron. Quickly she looked away, swallowing hard. 'It's called the Soulstone. The baron used it to drain the life-forces of his prisoners before he falsely executed them for treachery.'
Wort looked at both stone and doctor in turn. 'How do you know this?'
'There is…' With a shuddering breath, she corrected herself. 'There weis a spy in the keep, one of King Azalin's secret Kargat. Her name was the Lady Jadis. Caidin intended to attack the king with this tower. Jadis told me how he planned to do it. The stone… the stone was the key.'
Wort rose, his brain working feverishly. Caidin had planned on attacking King Azalin with the stone? It must be powerful indeed. He clutched 'the thing tightly in his hand. Perhaps he could use this power to his own advantage somehow.
'Tell me more.' he demanded.
With growing interest, Wort listened as she spoke of what she had learned from the dying Kargat-how Caidin had planned to use the life-force contained within the Soulstone to animate the tower, causing it to advance to the king's fortress of Avernus, crushing any army that stood in its way.
'But how did he intend to transfer the life-force within the stone into the tower?' Wort asked.
Mika shook her head. 'I'm not certain. Jadis…' a frown creased the mask of dust and grime that covered her forehead. 'Jadis mentioned something about an altar.'
Wort snapped his fingers. 'Yes! I saw it above, in the summit of the tower. There was a hollow in the altar, exactly the size of this.' He gazed at the stone that rested in his palm. It was hard to believe that so much power resided within such a small object.
'It was a hideous plan.' Mika shuddered, glancing one last time at the dead baron. 'But now it will never- come to pass. It is over, Wort.' Her violet eyes met his own. 'We are both free now.' She held out a hand toward him.
Wort recoiled. 'Don't touch me,' he snapped, eyeing her warily.
Confusion flickered across her face. 'What do you mean, Wort?' She took a hesitant step toward him.
He scrambled back over a pile of rubble. With sudden certainty, he knew that he must not let her lay a hand upon him. 'Don't come any closer. I've seen… I've seen what your touch does to creatures of evil.'
'What do you mean?' she gasped.
'You witnessed it yourself, Doctor. It happened when the dark spirits of the bell attempted to grasp you. Your innocence repelled them. Your radiance drove them back. Your very goodness destroyed them.' He shook a misshapen fist at her. 'I will not let you do the same to me.'
'What about.your back?' Mika said desperately. 'I have studied the operation. I can heal you, Wort. I am certain of it. Please listen to me.' She stumbled toward him, sobbing. 'I can make you whole!'
